A method and apparatus of sampling reflected voltage signal of a transformer is proposed. sampling signals are used for generating hold voltages by sequentially sampling the reflected voltage from the transformer. A buffer circuit generates a buffer signal from the higher voltage of hold voltages. A sampling switch periodically conducts the buffer signal to produce a feedback signal according to an output of the buffer circuit. The feedback signal is proportional to output voltage of the transformer. A threshold signal added by the reflected voltage signal produces a level-shift signal. A discharge-time signal is enabled once the switching signal is disabled. The discharge-time signal is disabled once the level-shift signal is lower than output of the buffer circuit. The pulse width of the discharge-time signal is correlated to the discharge time of the transformer. The sampling signals are enabled to generate hold voltages when discharge-time signal is enabled.
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13. A multi-sampling circuit, for receiving a reflected voltage signal from a transformer; said multi-sampling circuit comprising:
a signal generator, coupled to receive a switching signal and said reflected voltage signal for generating sampling signals sequentially, said sampling signals being generated as said switching signal being disabled; wherein said switching signal is used for switching said transformer;
a sample-hold circuit, coupled to receive said sampling signals for sampling said reflected voltage signal to hold capacitors respectively; wherein said hold capacitors generate hold voltages;
a buffer circuit, coupled to generate a buffer signal from a higher voltage of said hold voltages; and
a comparison circuit, coupled to generate a stop signal by comparing said buffer signal with a level-shift signal; wherein said level-shift signal is resulted from adding said reflected voltage with a threshold signal; said stop signal being generated once said level-shift signal being lower than said buffer signal;
wherein a feedback signal is generated in accordance with said buffer signal once said stop signal is generated; said stop signal terminating said sampling signals; said feedback signal being correlated to an output voltage of said transformer.
7. A multi-sampling circuit for receiving a reflected voltage signal from a winding of a transformer; said multi-sampling circuit comprising:
a signal generator, coupled to receive a switching signal and said reflected voltage signal for generating a discharge-time signal and sampling signals, said sampling signals being sequentially generated as said switching signal being disabled; wherein said switching signal is used for switching said transformer via a switch;
a sample-hold circuit, coupled to receive said sampling signals for sampling said reflected voltage signal to hold capacitors respectively; wherein said hold capacitors generate hold voltages in response to the sampling operation of the sampling signals;
a buffer circuit, coupled to generate a buffer signal in accordance with a higher voltage of said hold voltages; and
a comparison circuit, coupled to generate a stop signal by comparing said buffer signal with a level-shift signal; wherein said level-shift signal is resulted from adding said reflected voltage signal with a threshold signal; said stop signal being enabled once said level-shift signal being lower than said buffer signal;
wherein said discharge-time signal is enabled as said switching signal is disabled; said stop signal disabling said discharge-time signal; a pulse width of said discharge-time signal being correlated to a discharge time of said transformer; wherein a feedback signal is generated in accordance with said buffer signal after said stop signal being generated; said stop signal terminating said sampling signals; said feedback signal being correlated to an output voltage of said transformer.
1. A sampling circuit for receiving a reflected voltage signal from an auxiliary winding of a transformer; said sampling circuit comprising:
a time-delay unit, coupled to receive a switching signal for generating a delay-time signal as said switching signal is disabled, wherein said switching signal is used to switch said transformer via a switch;
a signal-generating unit, coupled to receive said delay-time signal, said switching signal, and said reflected voltage signal for generating a discharge-time signal and sampling signals; wherein said sampling signals are sequentially generated;
a sampling unit, coupled to receive said sampling signals for sampling said reflected voltage signal to hold capacitors respectively; wherein said hold capacitors generate hold voltages;
a buffer circuit, coupled to said hold capacitors for obtaining a higher voltage of hold voltages to be a buffer signal; and
a comparison circuit, coupled to said buffer circuit to compare said buffer signal with a level-shift signal for generating a stop signal; wherein said level-shift signal is resulted from by adding a threshold signal with said reflected voltage signal; said stop signal is enabled once said level-shift signal is lower than said buffer signal;
wherein said discharge-time signal is enabled as said switching signal is disabled; said stop signal disabling said discharge-time signal; a pulse width of said discharge-time signal being correlated to a discharge time of said transformer; said sampling signals starting to generate after an end of said time-delay signal; said stop signal terminating said sampling signals; a feedback signal being generated in accordance with said buffer signal after said stop signal being generated; wherein said feedback signal is corrected to an output voltage of said transformer.
2. The sampling circuit as claimed in
a sampling-pulse generator, generating a sampling-pulse signal periodically for multi-sampling operation;
a first signal generator, sequentially generating said sampling signals in response to said sampling-pulse signal during an enabled period of said discharge-time signal; wherein a delay time is inserted at a beginning of said discharge-time signal; wherein said sampling signals are disabled during a period of said delay time; and
a second signal generator, for generating said discharge-time signal; wherein said discharge-time signal is enabled as said switching signal is disabled; wherein said discharge-time signal is disabled as said stop signal is generated; said discharge-time signal being disabled as said switching signal being enabled.
3. The sampling circuit as claimed in
4. The sampling circuit as claimed in
5. The sampling circuit as claimed in
6. The sampling circuit as claimed in
8. The multi-sampling circuit as claimed in
a sampling-pulse generator, generating a sampling-pulse signal periodically for multi-sampling operation;
a first signal generator, sequentially generating sampling signals in response to said sampling-pulse signal during an enabled period of said discharge-time signal; wherein a delay time is inserted at a beginning of said discharge-time signal; and said sampling signals are disabled during a period of said delay time; and
a second signal generator, for generating said discharge-time signal; wherein said discharge-time signal is enabled once said switching signal is disabled; said discharge-time signal being disabled once said stop signal being generated; said discharge-time signal being disabled as said switching signal being enabled.
9. The multi-sampling circuit as claimed in
10. The multi-sampling circuit as claimed in
11. The multi-sampling circuit as claimed in
12. The multi-sampling circuit as claimed in
14. The multi-sampling circuit as claimed in
15. The multi-sampling circuit as claimed in
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control circuit for a power converter, and more specifically relates to a switching control circuit for a switching mode power converter.
2. Description of Related Art
Power converters have been widely used to provide regulated output voltages. For safety purposes, an off-line power converter must provide galvanic isolation between its primary side and secondary side. An optical-coupler and a secondary-side regulator are needed to regulate the output voltage of the off-line power converter. In order to reduce the device counts and to exclude a feedback circuit from a secondary-side of the power converter, a control technology at a primary-side has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,803 “Rectifier-Converter Power Supply with Multi-Channel Flyback Inverter”, by Randolph D. W. Shelly. In recent technology, U.S. Pat. No. 6,721,192 “PWM controller regulating output voltage and output current in primary side”, by Yang, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,836,415 “Primary-side regulated pulse width modulation controller with improved load regulation”, by Yang, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,853,563 “Primary-side controlled flyback power converter, by Yang, et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,862,194 “Flyback power converter having a constant voltage and a constant current output under primary-side PWM control”, by Yang, et al, have been introduced. However, for measuring a signal from the transformer, the foregoing technologies cannot yield accurate result.
The objective of the present invention is to provide a precise sampling circuit for a switching control circuit of a power converter for measuring a reflected voltage signal and a discharge time of a transformer. By using the sampled signal from the transformer, the output of the power converter can be regulated without the optical-coupler and the secondary-side regulator. In addition, the discharge time of the transformer is able to be used for quasi-resonant power converters to synchronize with the valley voltage and to achieve soft switching effect.
A multi-sampling circuit is coupled to receive a reflected voltage signal from a winding of a transformer. The multi-sampling circuit includes a signal generator developed to receive the switching signal and the reflected voltage signal for generating a discharge-time signal and a plurality of sampling signals. The sampling signals are sequentially generated as the switching signal is disabled. The switching signal is used for switching the transformer via a switch to regulate the output of the transformer. A sample-hold circuit is coupled to receive the sampling signals for sampling the reflected voltage signal. The reflected voltage signal multi-sampled by the sampling signals is stored into hold capacitors respectively. Therefore, hold capacitors generate hold voltages in response to the sampling operation of the sampling signals. A buffer circuit is coupled to the hold capacitors to generate a buffer signal in accordance with the higher voltage of the hold voltages. A comparison circuit is coupled to generate a stop signal by comparing the buffer signal with a level-shift signal. The reflected voltage signal is added with a threshold signal to generate the level-shift signal. The stop signal is enabled once the level-shift signal is lower than the buffer signal.
The discharge-time signal is enabled as the switching signal is disabled. The discharge-time signal is disabled as the stop signal is enabled. The pulse width of the discharge-time signal is thus correlated to the discharge time of the transformer. Besides, a feedback signal is generated in accordance with the buffer signal after the stop signal is generated. The stop signal further determinates the sampling signals. The feedback signal is therefore corrected to an output voltage of the transformer.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general descriptions and the following detailed descriptions are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. Still further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated into and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Referring to
Where LP is the inductance of the primary winding NP of the transformer 10; TON is an on-time of the switching signal VPWM.
Referring to
Where VO is the output voltage of the switching circuit; VF is a forward voltage drop of the rectifier 40; LS is the inductance of the secondary winding NS of the transformer 10; TDS is a discharge time of the transformer 10, which also represents a discharge time of the secondary-side switching current Is.
Meanwhile, the voltage signal VAUX is generated at the auxiliary winding NA of the transformer 10. A voltage signal VAUX1 as shown in
Meanwhile, the energy stored in the transformer 10 shall charge a parasitic capacitor CJ of the transistor 20 to generate a voltage VDS across the parasitic capacitor CJ of the transistor 20. The voltage VDS is given by:
Where VIN is the input voltage of the switching circuit; TNA, TNP and TNS are respectively the winding turns of the auxiliary winding NA, the primary winding NP, and the secondary winding NS of the transformer 10.
Referring to
Where CJJ is the capacitance of the parasitic capacitor CJ of the transistor 20.
The voltage signal VAUX starts to decrease as the voltage VDS starts to fall. The voltage signal VAUX is correlated with the voltage VDS, which can be given by:
Therefore, as shown in
Referring to
Where R51 and R52 are respectively the resistance of the resistors 51 and 52.
Further referring to
The main objective of the present invention is to provide a precise sampling circuit for measuring the voltage signal and the discharge time of the transformer. In addition, the present invention is able to regulate the output without having an optical-coupler and a secondary-side regulator.
Referring to
The signal-generating unit 200 includes a first signal generator, a second signal generator, a threshold signal 156, and a pulse generator 190. The pulse generator 190 generates a sampling-pulse signal for the multi-sampling operation. The threshold signal 156 added to the reflected voltage signal VDET generates a level-shift reflected signal. The first signal generator includes a counter 171, an AND gate 165, and an AND gate 166 for generating sampling signals VSPN . . . VSP1. The second signal generator includes a D flip-flop 170, an NAND gate 163, an AND gate 164 and a comparator 155 for generating the discharge-time signal SDS.
Further referring to
A D-input of the D flip-flop 170 is pulled high by a supply voltage VCC. An output of the D flip-flop 170 is connected to a second input of the AND gate 164. The AND gate 164 outputs the discharge-time signal SDS. The discharge-time signal SDS is thus enabled as the switching signal VPWM is disabled. An output of the NAND gate 163 is connected to a reset-input of the D flip-flop 170. A first input of the NAND gate 163 is connected to the capacitor 182 for receiving the delay-time signal VDL. A second input of the NAND gate 163 is connected to an output of the comparator 155. The level-shift reflected signal is supplied to a negative input of the comparator 155. A positive input of the comparator 155 is supplied with the buffer signal VHD. Therefore, after the delay time Td, the discharge-time signal SDS can be disabled once the level-shift reflected signal is lower than the buffer signal VHD. Besides, the discharge-time signal SDS can also be disabled as the switching signal VPWM is enabled.
The sampling-pulse signal is supplied to a clock-input of the counter 171 and third inputs of AND gates 165 and 166. The outputs of the counter 171 are respectively connected to second inputs of AND gates 165 and 166. First inputs of AND gates 165 and 166 are supplied with the discharge-time signal SDS. Fourth inputs of AND gates 165 and 166 are supplied with the delay-time signal VDL. Therefore sampling signals VSPN . . . VSP1 are sequentially generated in response to the sampling-pulse signal. Besides, sampling signals VSPN . . . VSP1 are sequentially produced during an enabled period of the discharge-time signal SDS, However, the delay time Td is inserted at the beginning of the discharge-time signal SDS to prevent sampling signals VSPN . . . VSP1. Sampling signals VSPN . . . VSP1 are thus disabled during the delay time Td.
Sampling signals VSPN . . . VSP1 are used for sequentially sampling the reflected voltage signal VDET. Sampling signals VSPN . . . VSP1 control switches such as 121 . . . 122 for obtaining hold voltages across hold capacitors such as 110 . . . 111, respectively. A switch 123 is connected in parallel with the capacitor 110 to discharge the capacitor 110. A switch 124 is connected in parallel with the capacitor 111 to discharge the capacitor 111.
A buffer circuit of the sampling unit 100 includes a plurality of operational amplifiers such as 150 . . . 151, diodes 130 . . . 131, and a current source 135 for generating the buffer signal VHD. The positive inputs of the operational amplifiers 150 . . . 151 are connected to the hold capacitors 110 . . . 111, respectively. The negative inputs of the operational amplifiers 150 . . . 151 are connected to an output of the buffer circuit. The diode 130 is connected from an output of the operational amplifier 150 to the output of the buffer circuit. The diode 131 is connected from an output of the operational amplifier 151 to the output of the buffer circuit. The buffer signal VHD is thus obtained from the higher voltage of hold voltages. The current source 135 is used for termination. A switch 125, which is turned on/off by the pulse signal PLS, is connected to the buffer circuit. The switch 125 periodically conducts the buffer signal VHD to a capacitor 115 for producing the voltage-feedback signal VV. Therefore the voltage-feedback signal VV is proportional to the output voltage VO of the switching circuit. Sampling signals VSPN . . . VSP1 start to produce hold voltages after the delay time Td, thus the spike interference of the voltage signal VAUX is avoided. The spike of the voltage signal VAUX would be generated when the switching signal VPWM is disabled and the transistor 20 is turned off.
Referring to
Besides, once the switching signal VPWM is enabled, a minimum of the on-time TON of the switching signal VPWM is ensured. The minimum of the on-time TON of the switching signal VPWM further ensures a minimum of the discharge time TDS, which ensures a proper multi-sampling operation for sampling the voltage signal VAUX in the multi-sampling circuit 700. The discharge time TDS is related to the on-time TON of the switching signal VPWM. Referring to equations (1), (2), and (3) and the secondary inductance LS, which is given by equation (9), the discharge time TDS can be expressed by equation (10).
Referring to
Since the voltage signal VAUX is reflected from the transformer 10 as the switching signal VPWM is off, the switching signal VPWM must maintain a minimum switching frequency to ensure a switching of the transformer 10 for multi-sampling the voltage signal VAUX.
As described above, the present invention provides a precise multi-sampling circuit in a switching controller for power converters. The multi-sampling circuit is capable of measuring the voltage signal and the discharge time of the transformer without having the optical-coupler and the secondary-side regulator to regulate output voltage and output current of the power converter.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention covers modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
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